


Sunshine

by Shellsan



Series: Ghost Hunt Tumblr Prompts [1]
Category: Ghost Hunt
Genre: < bc obvi with these two, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Cute, F/M, Gen, Pining, Pre- "Me or Gene", Pre-Relationship, Short, Timeline What Timeline
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-23
Updated: 2020-02-23
Packaged: 2021-02-28 06:33:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,195
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22869406
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shellsan/pseuds/Shellsan
Summary: In which Naru and Mai both pine, Mai learns a little more about being a medium and a little ghost girl moves on.
Relationships: Oliver Davis/Taniyama Mai, Shibuya Kazuya/Taniyama Mai
Series: Ghost Hunt Tumblr Prompts [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1643935
Comments: 5
Kudos: 40





	Sunshine

**Author's Note:**

> So this is from a prompt I got over on tumblr, I've just cleaned it up to post over here for those who don't use it~ Hopefully you all enjoy! If you have a drabble request or prompt, feel free to leave it in the comments or throw it at me over at tumblr~

Squinting under the beating heat of the afternoon summer sun, Mai couldn’t help but groan dramatically. They were sitting in the middle of a park just waiting for something to happen. There’d been rumours of a little girl haunting the playground and Naru had been convinced to at least look into things when children went from having an imaginary friend to being _hurt_ by that imaginary friend.

She could have scoffed at how reluctant he had acted about it all when he’d agreed to take the case.

Naru really was such a softie.

“How are we going to tell if the area is haunted if you aren’t paying attention, Mai?” Naru scolded when he looked over to see his assistant with her head tipped back and eyes closed against the sun.

He couldn’t help but appreciate how the light looked playing over her features before shaking that thought away as quickly as it’d come. Ridiculous.

Pouting, Mai sighed. Re-opening her eyes, she dutifully scanned the area for any sign of a ghost. “How do you even expect me to tell the difference between some ghost and the rest of the children?” she grumbled.

It was just the two of them since, in all honesty, Naru was mostly certain that it was just little kids rough-housing and being unwilling to own up to it all. He hadn’t thought it warranted the use of the irregulars. Lin had also opted out, citing office work.

Naru was almost positive that office work involved a call to Madoka but that was hardly his concern.

It did mean that Mai had a point, however. The girl might be more aware of her abilities now than before but she lacked any concept of how to control them and her ability to sense spirits and be able to tell the difference short of them being transparent – bordering see-through, really – was abysmal.

Sighing, he wracked his mind for the lessons of old when Gene was struggling through the same thing; struggling to tell the difference between reality and things of the spiritual plane.

“Just, focus Mai,” he started finally. He could sense her frustration at that direction and cut her off before she could loudly voice her complaint. “Take note of everything in front of you, let your senses feel everything around you and try to note the differences.”

Groaning at the instruction, Mai tried to do as Naru told her but all she could see in front of her were children playing and parents watching with half an eye from the sidelines. Nothing looking out of place, least of all _spiritual_ – if that even was what she was trying to see.

She was tempted to pull on her hair in frustration. Naru wasn’t making any sense!

Fighting the urge to roll his eyes when Mai became frustrated almost immediately, Naru rubbed gently at his temples.

“Stop getting frustrated so easily,” he scolded. “You need to focus, not cloud your mind further. Let thoughts of anything else fade away and try to sense the difference between everything around you. Everything gives off an energy and what you’re trying to sense is the difference between something alive and something dead. Remember, it’s entirely likely that there isn’t a ghost child at this playground.”

The reminder made Mai calm slightly. Maybe she wasn’t completely useless at this after all. Closing her eyes for a moment, she tried to clear her mind despite how she could feel Naru’s gaze on her. Ignoring the way her cheeks were flushing red under his attention, she swallowed and opened her eyes to scan the area, trying to take note of the everything.

For a moment there didn’t seem to be a difference between any of the children.

The sound of someone crying caught her attention and she looked over at the set of swings that were over to the side of the park to see a little girl standing next to the swing set and then another girl on the ground crying. Her knees looked to be scraped up a little but nothing major thankfully.

Scanning them both, Mai could have gasped when she noticed that there was something _different_ about the little girl standing near the swings just watching the other girl who was crying. She almost seemed to glow, although it was hard to tell when everything seemed bright with the slowly setting sun.

“Naru, can you see her?”

Looking over at the crying child he could see getting picked up by her mother. “What about her?”

Frowning at Naru, she shook her head. “No, the little girl next to the swings.”

Scanning the swing-set, Naru took a moment to confirm that he couldn’t see the child Mai was talking about before turning his attention back towards Mai. “There’s no other child over there Mai.” In fact, there weren’t many children left at the park at all. With the sun slowly starting to go down, many of them had headed home for the night.

“That confirms it then. She’s a ghost,” Mai whispered; amazement clear in her tone – as if she’d doubted that she could really manage to tell the difference.

Naru sighed. “Idiot. If you already know that then why are you still over here? Go and help her to pass on,” he ordered.

He raised an eyebrow when the realisation finally dawned on Mai. It was just the two of them this afternoon – of _course_ Naru was expecting her to be the one to exorcise the ghost. How had she managed to miss that? It must have been all the excitement at knowing that it was just going to be the two of them for the afternoon.

Flushing when she realised that Naru was waiting for her to do her job, Mai nodded. “I’ll try.”

Naru watched silently as Mai finally pushed herself up from the bench, slowly making her way over to where he presumed that the little girl she’d mentioned was.

It was a little odd to watch the completely one-sided conversation between Mai and spirit. He caught bits and pieces of the conversation but mostly left Mai to take care of things. This was exactly her area of expertise after all. Young children gravitated to Mai without thought; adored her and enjoyed playing with her.

He could understand.

Even someone as cold as him couldn’t help but be pulled into her orbit. Or maybe it was because he was cold that he couldn’t help but be drawn to her warmth. Because that’s exactly what Mai was to those around her; the unrelenting warmth of the sun.

And as he watched her turn towards him with a blinding smile and just a hint of the tears she’d likely shed for a little girls life lost, he couldn’t help but gravitate towards her once more. Her face was glowing in the dimming sun, hair blowing in the wind and getting in her faces lightly, prompting her laughter. Just for a moment Naru let the thoughts of his brother lost and his true purpose of being in Japan fade to the background in favour of enjoying his own personal sunshine for just a moment more.

  
  


**Author's Note:**

> If you liked this, leave a comment and let me know! You can also find me over on tumblr at shellsan.tumblr.com or you can find me on my ghost hunt discord server using this invite: https://discord.gg/xYDsAP5


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